


GLaD

by Avicarion



Category: Portal, Portal (Video Game), Portal 2, Portal 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Chell - Freeform, GLaDOS - Freeform, Gen, Portal - Freeform, Portal 2 - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-03
Updated: 2012-03-18
Packaged: 2017-10-28 20:19:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/311790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avicarion/pseuds/Avicarion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is what I believe happened in Portal/Portal 2/in-between both games, this is sort of a theoretic fill-in. On-going. Rated T to be safe. Again, this is just a theory about what happened, what I personally think. If you don't like it, please don't read. Also, constructive criticism is always appreciated!<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Aperture Laboratories

**Author's Note:**

> Rate and Review, please! Feedback is always appreciated as well as constructive criticism!
> 
> Copyright: I do not own Portal or Portal 2, Chell, GLaDOS, Doug Rattman (or is it Rattmann?), Cave Johnson, Caroline, or any other characters in this story, they all belong to Valve. 

The child looked out the window of the silver car she was sitting in, taking note at the lack of a building where Aperture Laboratories should have been. Her mother hadn't explained the whole "bring your daughter to work day" thing that the little girl had been dragged into. She didn't mind all that much, though, since she'd be spending some time with her mother. Her father also worked at Aperture Laboratories, but was the head of the whole business; Cave Johnson.

Cave Johnson had begun work on Aperture Laboratories before he'd met Caroline, nonetheless, before he had a daughter. He'd started it back when he'd first graduated high school, getting straight to work on his dream. Cave had managed to finish his dream, building Aperture Laboratories in a little over a year, and having met Caroline while looking for workers.

Caroline had been one of the first people to request for a job at Aperture Laboratories, even though she was still a senior in high school, and one of the only females who had worked there. She immediately grew a liking for Cave, and they actually began sneaking looks at each other during work, eventually dating and getting married and getting a child - a baby girl named Chell - in the process. But due to the tight schedual at Aperture from the lack of employees, Chell had to go to day-care since her mother and father didn't have enough time in the day to look after the her.

Chell had grown to be stubborn girl with Davy's grey eyes and dark brown hair that was usually pulled back into a pony-tail. At a total of five years, the girls' parents had managed to fit more time in their schedual for the little girl, though it still wasn't all that much. The child had already been to Aperture Laboratories plenty of times, sometimes under either of her parents' watchful eyes or, sometimes, even both. There were times that both Caroline and Cave were too busy with work that Chell was sometimes baby-sat by some of the workers that didn't have so much on their plates as her parents did. She was usually taken care of by Mr. Doug Rattman that worked at Aperture.

Mr. Rattman was a dedicated worker at Aperture, even if he wasn't as skilled as some of the other people that worked there. Besides the fact that the man had Schizophrenia, Caroline and Cave felt that he was one of the best people in the facility to take care of their daughter, Chell, until they had some more time for her.

Rattman didn't mind babysitting Chell, but he was actually looking forward to Bring Your Daughter to Work Day since the girl would be able to spend some time with her parents for once, whether it'd be at their work or not. Bring Your Daughter to Work Day was always well-looked forward to by Cave and Caroline, hoping to spend some time with their daughter for once. At least she wouldn't be the only child, since plenty of other employees had children that would be coming on the same day. Of course, since that day was basically a day off from work by showing your children around, everyone looked forward to it.

Caroline pulled her silver Lumina up to the toll booth as she rolled down her window and handed a shiny white card to the man with his hand held out. His name was Mr. Robert Michaels, not that he was all that important to Aperture. The man took the card, scanned it and his some buttons. The man handed the card back to the woman driving the car, "Have a good day, Mrs. Johnson." The woman nodded in return and drove forward, into the overly-huge parking lot that probably held less than eight cars at the moment since it was still so early.

Chell watched outside, seeing the scenery come to a stop and unbuckled her seat belt, a small click coming from her's and then from her mother's as they got out, closing their doors and walking to the small office building that was home to a cosy lounge and an office for the receptionist, along with one of the only elevators that led down to the _actual_ Aperture Laboratories.

The woman at the desk nodded with a 'good morning' to Caroline and Chell as they passed, going straight to the elevator. Caroline clicked a button, the elevator moving and the doors opening to a new floor, which mainly looked like a section of offices for the employees that had their own little cubicle for their things. At the end of the large work area was a hallway that led to the head scientist's office with the second to-the-best, assistant scientist's office a little before the more important one in the same hall.

Caroline ignored her room, heading for the door that had a plaque inscribed with 'Cave Johnson' in little gold letters. She stopped in front of the door, placing her hand on the doorknob and knocking, "Mr. Johnson, there's someone here to see you," she said in an official voice. She listened, Chell staying quiet as the taller woman smiled at her child, with her free hand holding a finger to her mouth to indicated being quiet. Chell obliged, staying quiet and listening for some sort of answer from the other side of the door.

The voice through the door laughed heartily, "Caroline, you know you can call me Cave," the voice said, "but come in, dear." Caroline didn't wait to open the door, taking her daughter's hand and leading the small girl into the room to see her father.

Caroline had a grin on her face, literally ear-to-ear as Cave watched her come in with her daughter's hand in her's. The man sitting behind the desk's face immediately showed more than twice as much pleasure as there had been before on his features as he got up and wrapped his arms around his daughter, picking her up in his arms and spinning her around a little bit. He listened, hearing the small girl giggling in his arms as she was swung around and finally held in one spot, hugging her father's slim chest with a smile, "I missed you, daddy!" she said with a cute little smile. "You're always getting up too early, though, you should sleep in more or you're going to get sick!" she scolded him, wagging a finger at him with a disapproving look on her face, but laughing again after a little bit of finger-shaking.

Cave shook his head, amused, "You're just like your mother, always worrying about me. I'm fine, can't you tell?" he said, lifting his daughter into the air and throwing her up and catching her for a short while, hearing more giggles emitting from his daughter. He put the girl back down and looked up at his wife as he took her in his arms and gave her a light kiss, both of them chuckling when they hear a little "ew" from beside them.

Cave let Caroline go, picking up their daughter again. "Where are we going first?" he asked his daughter, heading back to his desk to put a few papers away and hit a button, sending a pre-recorded message over the intercom stating to have a nice day with your family. Cave got back up, leaving the TVs that were situated in the wall behind his desk that showed the more important testing chambers on, pre-recorded messages ready to be sent where they'd be needed. He put Chell down so he could straighten out his suit and take her hand, his wife taking her other hand and left the room to begin their day together.


	2. Potatoes and Neurotoxin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm terrible at summaries, I just can't write them. The same goes for chapter titles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for making you guys wait so long! And please don't kill me for wrecking this game!
> 
> PFFFFFT. I just started this chapter on July 2nd. Fail and a half for me, yes? ;u;
> 
> And reviews are always loved, they make me smile. (:
> 
> This story will probably be put on hold for a little while, since I don't know why, but I have an urge to write a Team Fortress 2 fan fic for some reason. I even made my own little Scout. I'll also be working on a Nazi Zombies fan fic for a buddy of mine, too, so this more than likely will be put on hiatus. Enjoy anyway!
> 
> Portal & Portal 2 (c) Valve
> 
> -Auto

Chell had finished her lunch with her parents, plenty of other fathers and a few mothers with their daughters eating, too. There was a buffet to choose from or the employees could have brought their own lunch to eat, which usually wasn't the case since the food was always quite good everyday anyway, whether you got tired of all of the different food or not. Caroline and Cave finished their lunch shortly after their daughter had, throwing their paper plates into the garbage before they continued on with their day.

Cave had decided to show his daughter some of the more "cut off" test chambers, the ones where only the lab rats, the assigned scientists and himself were allowed to be in. He had asked his daughter if she had wanted to go with him to overlook the tests a bit. He hadn't let her enter any of the rooms with him, but he let her watch what they were doing from a small video screen that was hidden in the wall next to the door. One of the tests got quite a bit of Chell's attention. It seemed that Aperture had bought some moon rocks and ended up crushing them and making them into a gel - conversion gel, to be exact - which didn't seem to like the human skeleton and it was, from what her father said, pure poison from what she understood out of the conversation he was having with the lab associates. Apparently, the gel was a great portal conductor, though, and they were running tests to see if they could get the poison extracted from those who ended up with it by putting them through the portals. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Right?

Her father came back out of the room and led her back to the elevator, going farther down into the laboratory. He smiled down at the girl beside him, "This next room is very important," he said as the elevator re-opened on a new floor which was just a hallway with a secured door with a number lock to another room. "I think you'll like it. Maybe you can even help me with her!" Chell raised an eyebrow in confusion as her father coughed a couple times, but kept his smile as he opened the one door, motioning for his daughter to go in before him.

The girl walked into the room, her mouth slightly ajar from surprise. There were probably around five scientists or so in the room total, though it wasn't much. What got Chell's attention most was the large piece of machinery that was hanging from the ceiling. There were black chords connected to the thing, indefinitely used to power it. The brunette walked further forward, trying to get a better look at the thing - no, _her_.

There were three immediately visible spheres on the machine. There was a blue one, which had a small part of the sphere like an eye, as the others did. The blue one had the black close to nearly all of the color, only a small hint of blue for an iris around the outside of the black on the otherwise white ball apart for three black dots on either side of the "eye", but this core was apparently the "Intelligence Core" according to the scientists. The next sphere had a red iris with a very small pupil, close to just a dot of black in a pit of red, which was call the "Anger Core" and located to the left side with four black dots around the red instead of three, like the blue colored core. The last one that she could see had yellow, instead of red or blue. Its "pupil" was a slight bit bigger than the Anger Core's, if only by a little and its iris was a golden-yellow with two black dots on both sides of it, the pairs of dots straight across from each other.

Cave smiled at his daughter when he saw her bewildered expression. "Well, what do you think? Do you like her?" he asked, with a light laugh, "Her name's GLaDOS. It's short for Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System." he said with pride. Why wouldn't he be proud of his work? Sure, she still had some errors that needed to be worked out, like when everytime they'd try to start her up, she'd attempt to emit neurotoxin to kill them since they hadn't installed her "Morality Core" yet, a white sphere with a purple iris and an average-sized pupil with one black dot on either side of the iris. It was the last one they needed to install, but they were running into problems about getting it hooked up with all of the other ones, nonetheless, being careful to install it without problems in case she decided to warm up the neurotoxin emitters again.

Chell looked up at her father with hopeful eyes, trying to pass on the message that she wanted to help put in the Morality Core. Mr. Johnson laughed as he suppressed a cough, "Would you like to help put in the Morality Core, Chell?" he asked with a smile as a table with a large sphere, with an obvious color of purple where the eye was as it rolled into sight. The little girl nodded quickly, over and over again with a delighted expression on her face, happy that she'd be able to help with something even relatively important, nonetheless, almost secret to the majority of the other employees. She had listened to what the Morality Core was supposed to do, like the others. The Morality core was basically like a conscience, it knew when you did good or bad and it basically control her. Chell didn't approve of that so much. _'Just a conscience to control her? That might not work very well. You can always ignore your conscience.'_ the little girl thought to herself, but she kept the idea to herself.

The head of the facility took his daughter's hand and led her up the mesh stairs until they reached to where the railing curved back around and went back the way they'd come up the steps. The little girl was still curious about the whole machine, now seeing the 'GLaDOS' that was printed in plain English on a white portion of the robotic mechanism. The girl continued to examine the machine, finding some chords that needed to be plugged into something. The brunette glanced down at the Morality Core as two of the workers brought the sphere up the steps to where her and her father were. The two men stopped and Chell looked to her father then to the railing, climbing to the top bar with ease as the girl, taking hold of a few of the chords and turning to the scientists with the last core. She waited until the employee holding it brought the core closer so the chords wouldn't have to stretch so far, for fear that they'd disconnect and cause a disruption in the machine's programming or something like that.

Chell carefully connected the chords up to the Morality Core, an audible click confirming that it was put together correctly. The little girl smiled to herself with the success in helping with GLaDOS, jumping off the railing and landing back beside her father, the small, knee-high proto-type long fall boots that her father were having her test making the stress from falling the short distance nothing to her ankles and feet. "What do you say we fire 'er up, boys?" he said to the workers, getting nods and 'yes, sir's in return to his question.

Cave took his daughter's hand as they headed back to where the elevator was, going what seemed like a few floors up before exiting into another hallway which had a door on the left wall. The pair didn't slow down when they went down the narrow hallway and into the room. It was definitely a small room with three plain gray walls and one glass wall that overlooked the large open area where the rest of the scientists had stayed. It didn't take long for the little girl to notice a tall, white cylinder type thing with a red button on the top of it. She glanced at her father for any sign that she could hit it. Mr. Johnson nodded and Chell pushed the button, turning to watch what would happen next from behind the glass wall.

The four flat screens that protected the machine flashed to life, as did the one on the wall in front of the bundle of chords, seemingly flipping through images. Cake, security cameras, test chambers, and more. "Hello..hello..!" The first two hellos had shifted in tones before finally settling on a tone of pitch for the thing. "Hello, and welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided Enrichment Center." The voice was robotic, mechanical, like her. But it still held some sort of tone that a robot wouldn't be able to have, something that made her seem, if only slightly, human.

"Now that we have that Morality Core, it doesn't look like she's going to warm up those neurotoxin emitters anytime soon!" Cave said with a grin at what he'd accomplished. It'd taken him about fifteen years and he'd finally done it. The Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System he'd worked so long for was finally finished. Chell watched with interest as the robot swung back and forth slightly as she looked around with the one gold light that indicated the eye that she saw out of, not like the four cores she had.

The little girl couldn't take it anymore, she had to get a closer look at her. Chell ran back through the door and down the hallway, going straight into the elevator. Cave quickly followed his daughter, making it into the elevator just before the doors shut. "Sheesh, Chell. You're sure in a hurry, huh?" he said, laughing with another small fit of coughs. His daughter nodded as she rocked on her heels, waiting for the elevator to stop again. Once the door opened, she ran back out and up the mesh stairs, back to where she had been before. The child slowly climbed back onto the rail, watching the mechanism in front of her turn so it was looking at the little girl the robot obviously curious as to what she was doing. Chell slowly reached her hand up to the robot, placing her fingers by the robots yellow-gold eye. The brunette sighed and ran her thumb lightly on the white cover that was the robot's make-shift face, the plastic –like material curved outward. She smiled up at the thing – no, female – in front of her, bringing her face close to the side of the face of the system, closing her eyes to get a better feel for the mechanism before her.

"GLaDOS."


	3. Friends and Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh yeah, again, terrible at summaries. But for the notes, I originally posted this on Fanfiction, you can find it on there, if you'd like, so I just kind of copy/pasted the story 'cause I was lazy.  
> But! I did write this, I swear. I promise you I did.  
> Next chapter has also been started, but I need to replay Portal again to continue with it since I have such a terrible memory. Or watch Youtube walkthroughs, but with those, you can't find people who will just shut up so you can hear what the characters are saying. It's really annoying, honestly. So, I have to listen with my Turtle Beach x11s and pause the game every couple of seconds to catch what the character's are going to say.  
> Anyway, I suck at summaries, so you're not getting one. You're just getting a kind of author's note.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, sorry for the long wait! Please forgive me. ;n; I've honestly been playing Halo: Reach for the good majority of last month. So sorry, for real. Actually, go ahead and flame me if you want, I deserve it. xD Anywho, here's chapter 3! Feedback is always appreciated, tell me how I'm doing, what I can improve on, etc. (:
> 
> By the way, the other little girls' names that I mentioned in here are actually ones that can be found on the other science projects. I could make out all of the names except for one, so if anyone knows what the last name is, please tell me. So far, I have Jessica, Alix, Lauren, and Katherine. The other name that I can't make out kind of looks like it starts with an 'R', but if anyone can tell me what the last name is, that'd be a really great help. Anyway, enjoy!
> 
> Portal & Portal 2 (c) Valve
> 
> -Auto

Chell sighed as her and her father walked back down the hallway. "How about we work on that science fair project?" Cave said with a smile at his daughter. The little girl nodded with a slightly forced smile back at her father. She felt a bit at fault, though. When she'd held the robot, the machine actually seemed like she was...well, happy. When she had to go, she couldn't help but notice that the robot seemed slightly sad, maybe even angry that she was leaving. It was probably just her imagination, though, so the girl simply shook it off.

Chell's father and herself entered a large room, a red plush carpet on the floor, the walls a warm honey-gold color that made the room seem homey. There were vintage chairs with clawed feet and buttons on the back and seat parts of the chair. Ignoring the furnishings of the room, and moving to the people were people that Chell had seen rarely at Aperture, other children that needed to come to work if their parents didn't have a solution as to where their child would be while they worked. The parents in the room weren't really with their children, rather catching up with each other in a different part of the room while the children worked on their science projects.

"Chell!" the girl turned to see a girl about her age come toward her, throwing her arms around the girl in a hug. The girl's hair was dark, like Chell's, but shoulder-length and tied into pigtails. Her eyes were a hazel, green on the inside and a small ring of brown on the outside, Alix. Another girl came up beside her, Jessica. Jessica had golden-blonde hair that went down well past her elbows, her bangs pulled back from her face with a ponytail on top of her head. She had bright blue eyes, like ice, which was exactly what her personality was like. She wasn't nice at all, she was like one of those popular kids at school that always acted like she was smarter and better than everyone else. Two other girls stood behind Alix, on either side of her. The one on her right was Lauren, on the left was Katherine. Lauren had deep auburn hair that was in a ponytail hanging at over one of her shoulders and emerald green eyes, Katherine had bright brown, almost blonde hair tied in a single braid and dark brown eyes. Everyone was happy to see that she'd made it, except for Jessica, but she was never happy, really.

Chell smiled in response to the girl's hug with a nod as she hugged her back, taking note of what looked like some sort of camera in the corner that was hanging from the ceiling, almost like a small pod with a red eye at the end that was indefinately looking at her. "Well, c'mon! You have to start on your project! And it has to based around nature! It's 'Energy and Nature'!" the girl said, her smile unmoving. It was obvious that she was happy to see Chell, they were actually best friends, they had been since they met. Mr. Rattman actually introduced them one day, and they became instant best friends. They never spent all that much time together, though, because of their parents busy scheduals. Alix's mother actually worked at Black Mesa, her dad at Aperture. Even though their work wasn't a good mix, they hadn't split because they loved the family that they had. But they were smart people, not trading off secrets of their companies to one another.

The girl with Davy's gray eyes looked around the room once again, seeing that everyone's projects were already started, except for her. There were potatoes at every one except for one, which had an almost-finished paper mache volcano, only needing to be colored. All the others had potatoes connected to something with wires, some with clocks, a light, there was even one connected to a circle that was like a scale model of a portal. Chell nodded to Alix, "I better get started, then," she said. The girl grabbed a large gray poster board, along with some white cut-out stars and some black cut-out letters with a few more pieces of black and white paper. She went to a bucket of crayons, grabbing a black, brown and yellow, along with a number two pencil and a glue stick. The child hurried to her table to start on her project while her father went to talk to the other children's parents.

She took the large poster board and folded it into threeo parts, the two on the end smaller than the middle part. The brunette took the black pieces of paper and her glue stick, putting the glue on the back of the paper and pressing it to the middle part of the poster board once she knew she put enough glue on it. She did the same with a slightly smaller white piece, placing it over the black. The girl took two long black pieces of paper and put glue on those, then putting them on the smaller sides of the poster, putting smaller white pieces on them after that. Chell situated herself so that her legs were under her, giving her a bit more of a boost to be able to write at the top of the poster board that was laying on the table, practically finished. She decided to write on the far right part of the white paper first. She put "MateriaLs" on the top of the long white strip, writing the things she'd be using under it, "Nail, Potato, Penny, Wires," and "Something Electrical". The girl drew a squiggly line with the black crayon, then did the same with the brown crayon, under the first. Wires, check. She drew an oval with the brown crayon under the wires, coloring it in and taking the black crayon again, drawing a smiley face on the oval. Potato, check. She drew a small circle with the brown crayon, putting a black smiley face on this one too. Penny, check. She took the black crayon again, drawing a 'T' tipped by the penny. Nail, check. She went under all the pictures she'd drawn, taking the back crayon to the paper again, drawing what looked like some sort of bin, the Aperture Laboratories logo on the middle of it. She moved the crayon to under the bin and wrote, "Special ingredients from Dad's work" in small letters, sitting back with a simple smile at the majority of work she'd accomplished in such a short amout of time.

Chell went a little farther down the white paper, "Procedures" she wrote with the black crayon, putting upside-down hills under the word like she had done with the first. She took the number two pencil, holding it gingerly as she thought of what to put under the section, how you'd make the potato clock she would be making shortly after she finished the poster. She began writing, the small words scrunched together to be nearly impossible to read, except for the one that wrote it. Once she finished writing what to do to make a potato powered clock, she took the black crayon again and drew a circle with two legs on the bottom of the shape. She drew a line gone from the middle of the circle upward, and another pointing to what would be able one o' clock on the drawing, adding quick lines to show the other numbers around the hand-drawn clock. The brunette took the brown crayon again, drawing another oval and putting a T on the colored-in potato. She drew a squiggly line from the nail to the top of the clock, the wire that connected the two to create power.

The five-year-old looked her work over, nodding to herself. She glanced around the room again, seeing a few of the girls chatting, a few others working on their projects again so they could finish it. The girl turned back to her project, putting her attention on the left part of the gray, black and white poster. She used the black crayon again, writing "Odservations" on the top of the white paper, putting a half cloud under the word again. She took the pencil, scribbling in her barely-readable handwriting what she had observed with the potato clock. After she wrote that, she took the crayon again, drawing a black magnifying glass under the squished paragraph, more than enough room left on the other half of the paper. She went farther down the page and wrote "data" with the crayon again, putting the same mark under that word as she had done with the others. She took the pencil and began to put what she had gathered from her project with the potato clock. After she wrote the two about three-sentence paragraphs, she took the black crayon and drew a square under them, making horizontal and vertical lines inside of the shape. She drew a line that went up and down on the graph, showing a sign of good progress in the table.

The little girl looked at what she had done so far, seeing that she only had the middle to finish. She nodded to herself, "This should take long, then," she mumbled quietly as she looked up at the clock that hung on the wall. It'd only taken her about ten minutes to finish the two sides, drawings and all. She sighed and stood on the chair she was in, stretching out before she grabbed the glue and a white paper star, applying glue to the back of it and sticking it on the right side of the paper, in the middle of the right part of the paper, between her drawing of a bin and 'Procedures'. She did the same with another star, on the left side of the board above the word 'data' she had down. She continued putting stars on the paper, on the corners of the rest of the sections, includind on the middle one, too.

She sat back down, starting work on the middle section of her project's poster. She put "HyPothesis" on the top left of the paper. She went to the right of the word and began scribbling words again, "Connected to the small device.." she finished writing, drawing a lightbulb to the right of her caligraphy. She took the unused yellow crayon and colored in the light bulb, putting little lines eminating from the bulb to show that it was working. The girl took the black again and drew another clock, this one with all the numbers and the hands pointing to about 11:45 with a wire going from the top of the clock to a nail. She drew a potato, half of a penny sticking out of it, along with a nail. Both items had wires connecting from the potato to the clock, indefinitely the route that the electricity would take to make the circuit work completely for the project. She took the pencil and moved to under the picture, writing "ConcLusions" there. She wrote about four sentences there, one on top of the other, the first one a little bit crooked. She put the pencil down after she had finished writing the words and took the glue stick again, opening the lid and taking the black cut out letters that she had took for the poster, flipping them on their backs and putting glue on them, careful to put them on the poster before the glue dried out. E-N-E-R-G-Y, she finished the first word and went to the next to, O-F T-H-E. She took the first letter for the next word and putting it below the first three words, F-U-T-U-R-E. "Energy of the Future" the girl said to herself, smiling at her handi-work. The poster was completely done, except for one little part. The girl took the black crayon one last time, in the corner writing "by Chell", her name in large letters in the bottom right corner of the middle paper, showing that it was her poster.

Chell got out of her chair, setting her poster upright on the table before taking the crayons, pencil and glue back to where she had got them from. She looked around the room for the other items she'd need for her project, spotting a table with wires and different items. She took the largest potato, two wires, a penny, a long metal nail, and clock. The girl went back to her table around the corner of the hall, setting down her items on the table. She took the wires, tying the end of one to the length of the nail that she'd put into the potato, tying the other end of the wire to the clock. She did the same with the other wire and the penny. She looked at the project, nodding to herself. Perfect.

The brunette looked up again, noticing that everyone else was either done with their projects, or very near done. She tilted her head slightly, confused a bit since she'd finished her project before the others had finished theirs. She shrugged it off and went back to her father, tugging on his jacket to get his attention. "Dad, where's mom?" she asked, confused. She hadn't seen her since they split up earlier that day.

Cave looked down at his daughter with a smile, taking himself from the conversation he was having with the other parents to talk to her. He bent down, getting almost level with the girl, "Mom didn't feel good, so she went home. She said she'd meet us later." he answered. Chell raised an eyebrow, but didn't question him further, going back to sit where her project was. The girl shook her head and stared at the ground, trying to ignore the bad feeling she had in her gut, knowing that something wasn't right. She looked up again, seeing the parents come in and get their children, going for the complementary test chamber tours of the day. The brunette's feeling got worse, hearing about the tour and seeing how excited everyone was about it, but she nodded to herself and put a smile on her face, her facade to lie and say she was fine.

Chell followed her father as they entered the first room. It wasn't actually a test chamber, but a room for a 'lab rat', from what the people doing the testing had been called, time and time again. The brunette looked the small square room over from the outside, seeing a small flicker of blue on one of the walls, walking over to see what it was while the others went ahead, un-noticing the blue oval already far behind them as they continued to the next room with her father. She walked through the blue oval, entering the small room she had been looking at before. The girl turned around to see an orange oval - no, a portal - behind her. She looked at it in confusion, so the portal ended up in here, huh? She turned back to the things that were in the room. A toilet, a stand with a cup, a chart, and a radio playing a relatively happy-feeling toon. She looked at the rest, which was just walls, floor, and some type of bed that, from what she'd heard around, put the test subjects in stasis. Chell heard a noise, sounding somewhat like a whoosh than anything, flipping around to where she'd heard it, seeing the orange portal was gone. The little girl ran over to where the portal had been, banging on the plain white wall that was in its place. She looked around, beginning to panic; how was she supposed to get out? How long was she going to be trapped like a lab rat?

The brunette staggered on her feet, nearly falling over. She managed to support herself against the stasis pod that was in the corner, climbing into the pod in an attempt to not fall. Her breathing became slightly heavy. Why was she feeling so light-headed? Why was she so tired? The little girl looked around the glass walls again, seeing outside of her cage. She noticed an item hanging on the wall, it looked like some sort of camera. It was like an oval pod, one end cut off to have a red eye of some sort looking at her from the end that wasn't connected to the wall by a black piece of metal. The child only paid attention to the little things because she didn't want to think about the things at hand, how she was trapped in the room, how she'd probably never see her parents again, how her mother had "gone home sick", according to her father (which was a huge lie, she knew). The child didn't think much anymore, her eyes drooping as the top half of her body swayed from sitting up in the pod. The girl layed her head on the pillow that was in the pod, a feeling of heavy sleep ready to take her away for the time being. Chell didn't fight the urge to sleep, taking the one teddy bear that she'd found on the floor a little bit earlier into her grasp and hold it tightly to her while she began to drift off.  
 _Only for a few minutes_..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gosh, that's practically a whole chapter just on Chell's science fair project! XD
> 
> Why do I go into detail so much? o.e
> 
> Anyway, if you would, please review. I want to know if I should continue this (since I've been so lazy and I don't start the chapters until like...3 days before the next month), otherwise I might drop it once I get it to a spot where I think it's fit. I was actually thinking of stopping it last chapter with Chell and GLaDOS like that, but I didn't 'cause of all the people who (from what I can tell) like this story. .
> 
> Anyway, please review, I want to know what I can improve on and such. ;u;
> 
> EDIT: By the way, school's started for me again, so don't expect updates very quickly, especially with having to cram Algebra into my head (when I epically fail at math) while making time for my friends so they don't think I hate them. But! I did play Portal and it was definitely an awesome game, aside from how short it was. First time going through (without knowing what to do) only took me about 2 hours. But I hope you guys have patience with me and this story. For the time being, though, it'll probably be put on haitus until I have more time and less stress. I'm actually not going to be in a sport this year because of the coach for Danceline and because I'll be stressed enough trying to gets A's in all my classes to make my parents proud for once. But, yeah! Favorite, Review, other stuff. Do whatever you want to! (Aside from taking my story ;D )
> 
> -Auto
> 
> EDIT: And also, fluffyhojo was kind enough to draw some fanart for my story! Here it is: http://fluffyhojo.tumblr.com/post/17664507619/a-scribble-i-did-at-work-in-my-breaktime-and


	4. New Places and Old Aquaintances

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I'm so sorry it took so long to upload this! My USB, which contained all of my writing and my homework, broke. Unfortunately, I was done with the chapter but I didn't save it onto my desktop as well. I should have saved it there, but I didn't. But anyway, here's chapter 4 (finally!) and I hope you enjoy it.   
> Disclaimers: Portal and Portal 2 (c) Valve.

The girl yawned, stretching a little as she opened her eyes. She looked up at the cieling, the light that hung there blinding. Her eyes widened when she saw a cover from above her retract so she could sit up, doing so carefully. She looked around the small box room, firstly looking at what she had been sleeping in. She got up and turned around to face the object, running her hand along the edge, noticing the oxygen tanks at the head of the (what'd she'd determined as a) bed. She turned around, leaning against the bed, looking at the other things that inhabited the room, all inanimate objects. At the foot of the bed-pod type thing and to the left was the toilet. In the corner a little from the toilet was a sort of stand, white to match the scheme of the rest of the room. She walked up, the closer she got, the louder a light tune could be heard from the small radio. The tune was definitely catchy, that was for certain. She tried to change the station, but to no avail. She had turned every dial, the only one that changed anything was the volume, simply making the elevator-like music louder or more quiet. She lightly sighed and gave up on the contraption, moving to the other things on the small table. A clipboard with some type of chart sat on the table, an empy cup on the remaining space on the flat white of the stand. She looked over the charts, trying to understand what they were for, what they meant, but she sighed again, frustrated that she didn't understand what was supposed to be on the yellow sheet of paper that was clipped there to the wood.  
The automated voice above brought her out of her investigation, gaining her full attention as she looked up, as if to see the person who was speaking, though she obviously wasn't going to see anyone since it had more than likely been pre-recorded at an earlier time by an employee that worked in the place. "Hello, and again, welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided enrichment center. We hope your brief detention in the relaxation vault has been a pleasant one." The voice continued, "Your specimen has been processed and we are now ready to begin the test proper." The voice continued, "Before we start, however, keep in mind that although fun and learning are the primary goals of all enrichment center activities, serious injuries may occur." The girl raised an eyebrow at the voice, hearing that she might get hurt. "For your own safety and the safety of others, please refrain from touchi-" the voice cut off, being replaced with static. The girl watched the clock above the door outside of the glass room malfunction, surfing through the numbers randomly and the lights flashing a bit. The voice began talking in a few different languages, then back to English when the lights and the time on the door returned to normal as the voice continued to talk, "Stand back. Door will open in three, two, one." She jumped back, slightly startled when an orange portal opened in front of her. She stopped when she hit the ground, feeling a slight bounce when she landed. The girl looked down at her feet, seeing some strange wire like things that were hooked around where her knees bent, connected to her legs at the back of each knee. They were obviously used for a softer landing with just her bare feet, if not being able to jump higher with them.  
Casting aside the light fascination with her new 'shoes', the advanced knee replacements. She looked to the side, to where the blue portal had opened up, seeing herself through the portal. She looked herself over, her hair a mess and her Davy's grey eyes as bright as ever. She had an orange jumpsuit on, though its color was dirtied and a tad bit faded. There was a left breast pocket and a type name tag on the right breast that said "Aperture" on it. The jumpsuit was a zip-up, the zipper going down the middle front of the outfit, some of it unzipped to reveal a white tank top that was under the orange clothing. Not that any of it really mattered to her, she didn't care either way. She pulled out her ponytail and ran her fingers through her hair to fix the hair that was falling out, quickly succeeding in the small task and continuing forward through the portals. She stopped as she walked through for a second, the sound from an object moving through portals catching in her ears for a second, but shrugging it off quickly as she continued on. The floor was a lot smoother than she'd thought it would be, the material seemingly like a mix between linoleum and some sort of soft padding. The girl continued down the strange hallway type room that went around the relaxation chamber she'd been in. There was a medium-sized oval shaped item hanging from the wall, a red eye from the middle, following her as she went along, hanging beside a large glass window that contained some sort of office from what she could tell was in the room. She continued to a door, another red eye hanging from above the door.  
The black-haired girl walked into the room, the door automatically closing behind her. She stepped on the button, the door in front of her opening up to what looked like a hallway and to an elevator. The end of a clear tube in the corner of the small room opened, dropping a large cube. When the cube hit the ground, it sounded like it was hollow, which proved that it should be light to pick up, despite its size. She walked over to the square, the button going back up and the door closing once she'd gotten off of it. She picked up the cube, carrying it over to the red button and placing it where she had just been. The cube felt a lot lighter than she'd thought it would, but she didn't argue and continued on through the open door. The voice came on again, "Excellent. Please proceed into the chamberlock after completing each test." She did, continuing down the small corridor, stopping for a second when the voice continued, "First, however, note the incandescent particle field across the exit." The girl sighed when the voice continued going on about the item. "This Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid will vaporize any unauthorized equipment that passes through it - for isntance, the Aperture Science Weighted Storage Cube."  
The girl continued to the elevator, presuming that the voice was done informing her on what was painfully obvious to her. The elevator doors closed behind her as she jerked slightly as it started its ascension to the next test chamber. This was going to be a long day.


End file.
